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As time wears on, I - like most other television watching Americans - want the Writers Guild of America strike to end. For the most part the strike doesn’t bother me (God forbid I be forced to leave the house or read a book), but I am annoyed by the idea that the strike might promote an influx of more eye-gouging ‘reality’ television or that it could negatively impact the shows that are coming to an end this year.

I have no sympathy for the producers and studio executives who could have easily forgone a strike by making equitable concessions to Writers Guild demands. I was surprised by how little control and compensation many Hollywood writers receive for their work, which plays no small role in making studios billions of dollars. I understand that the major studios are playing their available cards - and that their considerations encompass more than just appearing insuperable to the writers - but this generally sucks.

On the other hand, it irritates me to see two generally wealthy and well-off groups argue melodramatically about money, particularly when the country is filled with people who are much more screwed over than Hollywood writers are.

Seeing the panic that “new media” has caused for both the film and music industries, I think it was wise of the writers to go on strike now. I disagree with those who say that they should have waited to see how lucrative methods of “new media”/internet distribution will become. If companies do find means of profit in these distribution methods, I would think that it would be much harder for writers to get financial ownership of them down the road. What would compel major studios to generously give up the financial rights to an assured area of tremendous revenue? It could be argued that the studios would want to invest what is necessary to keep their “new” revenue stream going, but I suspect that wouldn’t turn out to be the case.

My primary concerns, as I stated above, reflect my status as a television watcher; not an insider. What will happen to the shows whose final seasons are this year? Will I be able to see the end of Scrubs as it was intended? Will scripted comedies and dramas become even less visible on television as studios favor even more easy-to-produce ‘reality’ shows? As with many other things, we probably won’t be able to assess the damage until it’s done. Here’s to pastime creativity.

Blogging While Female

I just wanted to highlight the abuse that this woman has received for having the nerve to defend abused women, condemn pornography, and offer women a space where they can speak freely without fear of retribution.

I can’t think of a better way to give credence to the arguments of radical feminists.

EDIT: It makes me incredibly sad that this is one of the top posts on WordPress.

7 dead as Mississippi River bridge falls amid rush hour in Minneapolis

Why did this happen?

I am not familiar with the intricacies of bridge architecture or the public laws surrounding its maintenance. I know construction work was taking place on the bridge at the time of the collapse, but the authorities in Minnesota are claiming that the work had nothing to do with the bridge’s structural integrity.

Was this not something the local/state/federal government knew was coming? Something they could not have predicted? Who was in charge of checking? I’m asking these questions genuinely because, although they seem like they should have simple answers, they may not. Maybe the structural problems of the bridge weren’t easy to identify; maybe it was decaying and crumbling from within. Still… it seems like something should have been happening that wasn’t.

My goal in these questions, rather than try to figure out who to blame, is really to understand more about the circumstances surrounding the situation. If anyone reading this post knows about any of these things, I encourage you to leave a comment pointing me in the right educational direction.

Maybe this will encourage New York State to be more serious about replacing/rebuilding the Tappan Zee Bridge.

More children molested because the Catholic church broke the law. Repeatedly.

Priest Says Church Knew He Was Abusing Girls

MacArthur told lawyers in a 2004 deposition for an out-of-state civil case that he was bounced around by church leadership, from South Dakota to Wisconsin to Texas, because of the abuse. Stops in Wisconsin include St. Phillips, St. Roses and the Beaver Dam hospital.

The suit, filed in Milwaukee County Court, is on behalf of a Jane Doe, a woman who said she was abused in the 60s in Milwaukee. Her lawsuit includes a photo of her with MacArthur, as well other documents that victims advocates say proves a cover-up by church leadership.

If you were one of those victims, who would you hate more - the priest who molested you or the men who enabled him to do it? The men who unconscionably, unscrupulously, and immorally placed a predator into a position of power and assumed trust?

The men of the Catholic church who supported, enabled, and protected child molesters should be going to jail. They are equally culpable in these crimes and, in addition to having the arrogance to circumvent the law, have committed crimes themselves.

That’s a damn shame.

Man guilty of abducting mom, leaving daughter to alligators

I have to quote this, because it is so despicable and nauseating it’s almost unbelievable:

He choked Maycock until she was unconscious and then forced her and Quatisha into his car, the woman testified. At one point, Maycock gained consciousness, grabbed the child and jumped out of the moving vehicle.

Braddy stopped, choked the woman again and put her in the trunk, she testified. Maycock never saw her daughter again. Prosecutors said Braddy then drove to a section of Interstate 75 in the Everglades known as Alligator Alley and dropped Quatisha in the water beside the road.

She was alive when alligators bit her on the head and stomach, a medical examiner said.

Authorities found the girl’s body two days later, her left arm missing and her skull crushed, prosecutors said.

This gentleman, highlight of modern society that he is, was released early from prison for ‘good behavior’ before he did this. Before he fed a 5 year old girl to alligators. How sick and angry this makes me. Nothing comparable will ever happen to him.

“Punishing” him with a lifelong prison sentence is useless. At this point, the only purpose in his sentencing would be to keep him out of general society. He’s beyond a lost cause.

How do you successfully stop someone like this? I mean, beyond feelings of vengeance, justice for the victim’s family, all of those other factors - could there ever be any successful hope of rehabilitating someone who does something like this?

I honestly don’t know that there is.

If Catholicism is one of the only ‘true religions’, then I’m betting there’s a lot of people who would rather be a part of the ‘fake’ ones.

Archdiocese to settle sex-abuse claims for $600 million or more

Sickening. I don’t see any high-profile representatives of the church rushing to address the world about this one.

This was brought on by a recent article in the Wall Street Journal which has received a lot of attention, called “Blame It on Mr. Rogers: Why Young Adults Feel So Entitled”. I’m not linking it because I don’t want to give the individuals who have written it what they want, which is more people reading their vacantly inflammatory rhetoric.

Fred Rogers, the late TV icon, told several generations of children that they were “special” just for being whoever they were. He meant well, and he was a sterling role model in many ways. But what often got lost in his self-esteem-building patter was the idea that being special comes from working hard and having high expectations for yourself.

No. No that did not get “lost in his self-esteem-building patter”. It is not his fault if other people misinterpreted or distorted his intentions and teaching techniques. Modern teenagers and young adults feel more entitled because the people around them have created that sense of entitlement.

Lazy, well-off parents throw money at their kids instead of paying attention to them or giving a damn about the way they treat other people. They also scream at teachers who don’t hand out A’s like business cards; administrators who won’t automatically enroll their children in Advanced Placement or Honors classes. People who don’t correct or yell at their kids because it’s easier not to have to play an actual role in raising them. People who think Bratz dolls are harmless or boys acting like psychopaths are ‘just being boys’. “I deserve whatever I want and don’t have to do anything to get it” attitudes are not only pervasive, but celebrated, and that sure as hell wasn’t what Mr. Rogers was promoting when he told kids they were special and could look forward to getting up in the morning.

I detest when people do this - attack someone or something who does not deserve censure because they’ve either failed at identifying the source of a problem themselves or because they want people to pay attention to them. Way to use your shockingly impressive powers of observation and means of mass communication to achieve positive ends, you inane poseurs.

Lady Bird Johnson died. I knew practically nothing about her, except that every time I drive along the highway with my family and we come across a patch of wildflowers, my mother always mentions how she was so glad that Lady Bird Johnson did the work she did to have the wildflowers planted along the nation’s highways.

It wasn’t world peace or national literacy, but it was a simple something that brought a lot of beauty and modest happiness to the world.

Thanks, Lady Bird.

… and the featured article on Wikipedia today is “mourning dove”. Go figure.

I was treated to a splattering of posters for the Bratz movie around Manhattan today, a film based upon the popular doll/cartoon/puzzle piece franchise. These are Bratz dolls:

Ewwwwwwww… It sends a shudder down my spine to even have to upload the picture. You’ve probably seen them. A quick glance, they look like any twiggy thin Barbie doll, then you do a double take because their hideous makeup-caked faces have made an imprint on your brain.

Here, in a succinct little bite-sized portion, is why Bratz dolls are clearly created, endorsed, and owned by satan or other satan-related affiliates:

WHY WOULD YOU GIVE THIS TO YOUR DAUGHTER?! I guess someone may have said that about Barbies, once, too…

1) They celebrate stupidity.

They’re called “Bratz”. Need more? Look at their website, watch the cartoon, go see the upcoming movie, which I’m sure is a shining example of progressive pro-feminist ideals developed by women for a smart, impressionable female audience.

2) They take the laughably unrealistic beauty standard and blow it out of the water.

I mean, Jesus, just look at them. The nose thing kills me. They hardly have them. Oversized, pouty Angelina Jolie lips. Eyes drowning in eyeliner and eyeshadow. Why is it that girl dolls are never allowed to have noses? Is being able to smell unattractive? Their faces look almost identical, save for the slightly differing skin tones and preferred shades of makeup. I’m not even against makeup in every way, shape, or form. I’m fine with teenage girls playing with makeup, but not when it’s to tear down their first face and create a new one.

3) They’re teaching girls… what?

To plaster industrial strength makeup on their faces much earlier than ever before; to dress as provocatively and mass-market targeted as possible; to adopt the attitudes that very insecure, self-bankrupt older women adopt now rather than later; to achieve a level of thinness thought impossible by human test subjects; to get plastic surgery so that their noses are extra itty bitty and cwute (meaning barely visible); to gloriously and proudly refer to themselves as ‘bratz’, a word that, by my recollection, used to mean you were obnoxious and self-entitled; to love shopping without reason or rhyme; to be cliquey and exclusionary; to predicate their lives on fashion, fun, and flirtatiousness.

It annoys the hell out of me that these dolls have managed to become so popular. Why can’t girls be assertive rather than ‘bratty’? Why can’t they have dolls that reflect something of what their lives are actually like? And, if they actually live lives like those of Bratz dolls, why would we encourage anyone to celebrate or idolize that mentality?

Thank God my sister missed this craze by a small margin, because if I had ever seen her playing with a Bratz doll I may have had to remove it from her presence, tear it’s head off, and chuck it in the trash.

… or have we gotten past the point of oral expression?

Asked by a reporter if he was asserting that “two wrongs make a right,” Snow said: “Do we feel we’ve done wrong? Do we feel we cut corners? The answer is no.”

Oh, Tony Snow; you’re not even a major player in the apocalypse. Just an errand boy.

The actual pardon of Libby wasn’t the primary reason for offense; it was the process. It was Bush flaunting his fuck you attitude to the rest of the country by pardoning his pal immediately, ignoring every argument to the contrary, and making not even the most paltry effort to excuse his behavior or defend himself.

It’s the contempt behind the action that hurts the most.

Keith Olbermann summed up the whole thing nicely. I discovered his thoughts through a post at AROO. Anyone who feels a bit defeated and speechless about all of these things will probably enjoy watching it.